William Grant & Sons has spent £13m on a new Hendrick’s Gin distillery which will double the production capacity with room for further expansion.

The new distillery is based 50 meters from its old site in Girvan, west Scotland and it has two still houses which will double the potential production of Scotland’s most popular gin brand.

As well as new stills, the site has its own bar, library, lecture room and laboratory where master distiller, Leslie Gracie can work on new formulas.

Since its birth in 1999, Hendrick’s has become one of the biggest international premium gin brands in the world and in 2018 it broke into Drinks International’s Millionaire’s Club for the first time.

“When it launched we would never have imagined it would become a million-case brand and the difference between this new distillery and the old one is just amazing,” said Gracie.

“One of the things that drives us forward is innovation, and to do this we need the capacity to be able to experiment.”

The new facility is known by Hendrick’s as its ‘Gin Palace’ and one of its more unusual features is the botanical gardens located at the front of the building, where Gracie can grow tropical flowers and fruits to experiment with different botanicals.

Hendrick’s will also be rolling out its other expression Orbium, to different international markets following its soft launch in the UK last year.

Pamela Selby, global brand director Hendrick’s Gin, said: “The last four or five years in particular have shown exponential growth from all corners of the globe and so we had to decide whether to extend what was the current facility, or take a step back and plan for the future.

“The new facility is a confident and bold statement we’ve made in the belief of the long-term demand for Hendrick’s as well as the gin category as a whole.”